Simulated nitrogen cycling response to elevated CO2 in Pinus taeda and mixed deciduous forests

Abstract

Interactions between elevated CO2 and N cycling were explored with a nutrient cycling model (NuCM, Johnson et al. 1993, 1995) for a Pinus taeda L. site at Duke University, North Carolina, and a mixed deciduous site at Walker Branch, Tennessee. The simulations tested whether N limitation would prevent growth increases in response to elevated CO2, and whether growth responses to CO2 in N-limited systems could be facilitated by increasing the biomass/N ratio (reducing N concentration) or increasing litter N mineralization, or both. Nitrogen limitation precluded additional growth when target growth rates and litterfall were increased (simulating potential response to elevated CO2) at the Duke University site. At the Walker Branch site, increasing target growth and litterfall caused a 7% increase in growth. Reducing foliar N concentrations reduced growth because of N limitation created by reduced litter quality (C:N ratio), reduced decomposition and increased N accumulation on the forest floor. These effects were most pronounced at the Duke University site, because the forest floor N turnover rate was lower than at the Walker Branch site. Reducing wood N concentration allowed prolonged increases in growth because of greater biomass/N; however, N uptake was reduced, allowing greater N immobilization on the forest floor and in soil. Increased N mineralization caused increased growth at the Duke University site, but not at the Walker Branch site. These simulations pose the counterintuitive hypothesis that increased biogeochemical cycling of N (as a result of increased litterfall N) causes reduced growth in an N-limited system because of increased accumulations of N on the forest floor and in soil. Translocation of N from senescing leaves before litterfall mitigates this response by allowing the trees to retain a greater proportion of N taken up rather than recycle it back to the forest floor and soil where it can be immobilized. Eliminating N translocation at Walker Branch changed the direction as well as the magnitude of the NuCM model does not currently allow translocation in coniferous species, the effects of translocation on N cycling in the Duke University simulations are not known.